Rock like a mechanical bull with Three Day Threshold in Cambridge

Band will display all its trademark genre-busting, party-generating, infectious rockin’ fun when they celebrate its CD’s official release Saturday night at the Cambridge Elks Lodge.

Jay N. Miller/Patriot Ledger

Three Day Threshold has proudly campaigned outside all the usual parameters, performing as a punk/bluegrass, Celtic/Americana, rowdy roots band.

But now, with the release of their third album, “Against the Grain,” something funny is going on. The band fronted by Norwell’s Kier Byrnes is starting get a lot of notice from comparatively mainstream sources.

Not to worry, 3DT will still display all its trademark genre-busting, party-generating, infectious rockin’ fun when they celebrate the CD’s official release Saturday night at the Cambridge Elks Lodge.

First, let’s examine this weekend’s special gig at this special site. The Cambridge Elks Lodge is at 55 Bishop Richard Allen Drive, about a block from the music mecca of Central Square

Redbones is providing a free barbecue buffet, and the band is arranging for a mechanical bull, in case any fans want to let out their inner John Travolta.

The multi-band lineup includes 3DT, The Hansen Sisters, Sam Reid and the Riot Act, Scituate’s Girls Guns and Glory, Tin Can Tele, and The Boston Baby Dolls. The insanity begins at 7 p.m. and ends by 11 p.m., but for $12 (advance) or $15 (day of show) how can you go wrong?

What’s striking about the new album is how seamlessly it weaves disparate influences into a viable rock ’n’ roll whole. The loosey-goosey honky tonk of “Narrow It Down” flows into the mountain-country romp “Uni,” which slides easily into the punky 1950s rock of “Chicken Shack,” before embarking on the vibrant alt-country two-step of “Right Outside the Door.”

There’s a Johnny Cash-style murder ballad, “The Ghost of Jimmy Ryan,” a punk-rock Celtic workout a la The Mighty Mighty Bosstones in “Kelly I’m Coming Over” and even a reasonably sensitive rendition of an old Irish traditional tune, “Back Home in Derry.”

Somehow, all these elements make up a mixture that is ultimately – no wait, unmistakably – rock ’n’ roll.

Which probably explains why the band has practically become pop stars. Three Day Threshold grabbed a Best Stage Presence award from WBZ-TV, performed live on WBCN last Sunday night with DJ Shred, a longtime supporter. They’re fresh off an appearance before thousands at the Block Island Music Festival. Sponsorship tie-ins with Triple 8 vodka and Whales Tale Ale have come about because the drinks are made on Nantucket, and the companies’ owners became big 3DT fans.

And the latest CD is on Hi-N-Dry Records, a label consisting mostly of associates of Morphine and late songwriter Mark Sandman – certainly a label with plenty of artistic and Beantown cachet.

“(Sandman) redefined the whole idea that a rock band had to be guitar, bass, and drums, and tweaked it in his own way. That’s what I’ve tried to do a little with my banjo,” Byrnes said. “There’s really not much room in a lot of rock for innovation, for re-inventing the past while making modern music, but Mark Sandman did that and I’m humbled to be on that label.”

Byrnes writes most of the 3DT material, with occasional credit going to guitarist Colt Thompson. Some tunes are written and developed to various stages, then arranged and tested on the fly with the rest of the band.

“It’s a sloppy sandwich to be sure, but it works,” Byrnes said. “Starting out as a country band in Boston was really tough – country was always the word you didn’t want to say out loud. So many people will say ‘I like all music – except country.’ But now people have become much more hip to it.”

We mention that Southern Culture on the Skids is one band that has utilized country elements, yet has always been viewed as a rock band first and foremost.

“That’s absolutely what we’re aiming for,” Byrnes replied. “Southern Culture on the Skids has successfully thrown off the stigma of writing country tunes, and been accepted as a rock ’n’ roll band. If you ask me, there’s not much difference between mainstream country music today and what Whitney Houston was doing in the 1980s, and I’m not a big fan of it. Our scene is more tied into the old-time country music of people like Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, that roots sound played with wild abandon. Modern country is too slick for my tastes, and we’ll never be slick.”

Thompson, who also writes for his own band, said that writing “Right Outside the Door” was an enjoyable outlet for him.

“It’s nice to put my own songwriting mark on the album,” Thompson said. “I love the country stuff we do, and I’ve definitely learned a lot working with these guys. Kier’s songwriting style is so cool, because he can say things with meaning, but also come up with some real funny stuff too. I’d like to do more songwriting with this band, but Kier’s the main writer and he’s really good at it.”

3DT recorded 20 songs for this CD and 15 made the cut. The tunes that were edited out are available on threedaythreshold.com.